Monday, July 27, 2015

Turkey: air raids against PKK

Jets attack again positions in northern Iraq - tank attack on Kurdish village? Turkish fighter jets have bombed again positions of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey (PKK) in northern Iraq. The CNN Turk reported on Sunday night, F-16 jets were risen from the Air Force Base in southeast Turkey Diyarbakir and had the Hakurk region in northern Iraq bombed. According to the Kurdish militia YPG the Turkish army attacked their positions in Syria. The Turkish troops targeted the Syrian Kurds and not the Islamic fighters Jihadistenmiliz state (IS), the Kurdish militia said on Monday.

As further reported by YPG rushed bombarded Turkish tanks at night to Monday the village controlled by them Sur Maghar. The place is located east of the city Jarabulus which is controlled by the IS. In the attack in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo near the Turkish border positions of Kurdish rebels and associated with them have been taken. Four rebel fighters and several villagers were injured by the "heavy tank shelling" from Turkey. Later it had still been another attack on Sur Maghar and another village.

Earlier, the UK-based Syrian Observatory had reported the attacks on human rights. The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that it was apparently to the most severe attack on Turkish Kurdish region since the start of the Syrian conflict.

Turkey denies attack on Syrian Kurds

Turkey has denied deliberately attacking Kurds in Syria. The Turkish military inserts in Syria directed against the Jihadistenmiliz Islamic State (IS) and the operations in Iraq were directed against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said a Turkish government official, who declined to be named, on Monday the news agency AFP.

The Democratic Union Party (PYD), the main Kurdish party in Syria, belong "not to the purposes of our military operations," he added. Information indicating that the Turkish army in Syria have shot at positions of other fighters as the IS would, checked.

No planned ground forces deployment

Meanwhile, said Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday, according to the newspaper "Hürriyet", Turkey plan no use of ground troops in Syria. But Ankara wanted the units on the ground, who worked with Turkey, protect the blade wrote in the night to Monday next.

Trying to approach the government's announcement to the jihadist organization "Islamic State" (IS) and other extremists, is widely interpreted as a radical shift and task of restraint against the IS-trailer. Critics and observers contrast assume that Ankara chaos and a combat-IS jihadists used as an excuse to take action against members of the opposition in its own country - also in regard to getting probably be more elections.

Davutoglu was also quoted by the Journal as saying the Syrian-Kurdish party PYD could have a place in the "new Syria". Prerequisite is, however, that it is not directed against Turkey, all connections to the management of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad cap and together work with opposition forces.

Airstrikes heat conflict with Kurds

The air raids by the Turkish army against PKK camps in northern Iraq heat the conflict with the Kurds again. The fragile ceasefire is now after more than two years virtually ended. The PKK declared on Saturday that proclaimed two years ago a truce was no longer relevant. Indirectly Ankara was backed by the US government. "The United States gradually the PKK as a terrorist organization specifically a" President Barack Obama's national security adviser Ben Rhodes stressed deputy in Nairobi.

Fighter jets of the Turkish Air Force had risen on Friday to first first attack near the border positions of the jihadist organization "Islamic State" (IS) in Syria. Then bombed Turkish jets PKK camps in neighboring Iraq. The attacks lasted until Saturday. At the weekend there was another attack on security forces and violent clashes with the police. A car-bomb attack on Sunday killed in the province of Diyarbakir two Turkish soldiers and four others were injured, was charged by the Turkish side the PKK.

Attacks on IS-positions in Syria

The attacks on IS-positions in Syria by the Turkish military has been widely interpreted as a radical turn and the object of the years of restraint against the jihadists. Observers and Turkish government critics assume, however, that Ankara uses the opportunity especially to to combat the opposition in their own country.

The IS controlled parts of northern Syria on the border with Turkey. The largest area is, however, now of Syrian Kurdish militias (YPG) controls, the fight against the IS-extremists and are close to the PKK. The profits, however, offset Turkey on alert the Syrian Kurds against both the extremists and territorial already could claim for itself: Ankara fears that this could inspire about the autonomy of the Turkish Kurds.

At the same time the attacks were Turkish security forces during raids in Istanbul and other cities before against suspected supporters of the IS and the PKK and other left-wing groups. Here to Turkish information almost 600 people were arrested. The arrests went on Sunday next.

Trigger of the recent escalation

Trigger of the recent escalation were an attack in the southern city Suruc with more than 30 deaths for which the IS is blamed, and skirmishes with IS-fighters at the Syrian-Turkish border. The PKK had shot two policemen in the district Ceylanpinar on Wednesday by its own account. The organization called the act a retaliation for the Suruc-stop, they threw the official collaboration with the IS before.

The Istanbul governor banned a memorial march of the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP for victims of Suruc. Organizers said the event from then. The HDP threw President and ACP co-founder Recep Tayyip Erdogan also of wanting to exploit the chaotic situation in order to obtain his power. For more likely expectant elections Erdogan speculate on an increase in votes the AKP.

The HDP overcame the ten-percent threshold in the parliamentary elections on June 7 for the first time. Currently, the AKP is in coalition talks with the center-left party CHP.

IS "main threat to national security"

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the IS officially the "main threat to national security". Immediately the air force of the country to participate in the US-led international military campaign against the jihadists. Freed from the IS areas in northern Syria should be "free zones," said Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The US after much insistence the permission to use bases in Turkey for attacks against the extremists simultaneously received.

At the request of Turkey, the ambassador of the 28 NATO member states come together on Tuesday. The country had requested consultations under Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, the alliance said in Brussels on Sunday. Article 4 provides for consultations when a NATO member means that the integrity of its own territory, political independence or their own security is threatened.